UMass basketball team's 7-game win streak has a better feel this time

UMass senior forward Terrell Vinson sees a better foundation to his team's current seven-game winning streak than a similar surge at the beginning of the 2010-11 season.David Molnar | The Republican

AMHERST – When Derek Kellogg was reminded his team's seven-game winning streak matched the best of his career, he did his best to change the subject.

"Let's not talk about that,'' the fifth-year University of Massachusetts men's basketball coach said when reminded of his first such seven-game run, which occurred in November 2010.

Kellogg is more at ease discussing the Minutemen's current streak, which will be put to the test Thursday night at Saint Louis.

The conference opener matches UMass against a bona fide Atlantic 10 title contender. The Minutemen hope to prove they also belong in that category, as well as give Kellogg his first eight-game winning streak.

"I'm happy it's our first league game. It will help us find out where we're at,'' senior forward Terrell Vinson said.

UMass is 10-3. Two years ago, the Minutemen jumped to a 7-0 start, but Kellogg sees great differences between the two streaks and the teams that fashioned them.

"We were a much more fragile team then. The guys were not used to success,'' he said.

He thought that helped explain why the success didn't last. Rather than serve as a steppingstone, the fast start two years ago became a prelude to unmet goals.

After winning its first seven games by an average of 12.4 points, UMass lost its next four and finished 15-15 with several blowout losses.

The crumbling of the 2010-11 season led to a public debate of whether Kellogg's program had lost its way. Last year, UMass answered with a 25-win season, a memorable upset of Temple in the A-10 tournament and a spot in the NIT final four.

The momentum from last year has carried over to this season. After a bumpy 3-3 start, UMass has been unbeaten since Dec. 1, against a schedule Kellogg calls more demanding than in 2010-11.

The Minutemen's first nine wins this season came by a total of 39 points. Their tightrope walk has been such that UMass took a 9-3 record into Saturday's Eastern Michigan game, yet had allowed more points over its first 12 games than it had scored.

Kellogg hopes the experience of winning such close games proves useful in the Atlantic 10, which promises to offer a new round of nail-biters.

"We've figured out ways to win basketball games. The guys have gotten better and more mature, and the staff and myself have been able to get a good feel for them,'' Kellogg said.

"The close games we've won this year, we probably would have lost them a couple of years ago,'' said Raphiael Putney, a redshirt junior whose career began with that 7-0 start in 2010.

"Success came quickly to us. But we dealt with adversity, and this year, we are finding ways to win those close games, as we should.''

UMass' win Saturday was its first double-digit victory. The steady stream of last-second thrillers has been a bonding experience and a confidence builder.

"We've probably had more close games than I'd like, but this is a different time (than 2010), and the program is in a different place,'' Kellogg said.

"We have an identity and a (pressing, fast-breaking) style, and I like how our guys are playing in it.''

The current streak has been fashioned with the help of players such as Vinson, Putney, Freddie Riley and Sampson Carter, all of whom have gained experience since they were part of the seven-game streak of two years ago.

UMass is missing gritty Javorn Farrell, a member of that team who is sitting out this year with an injury. The biggest addition has been point guard Chaz Williams, whose leadership and skill became a rallying point from the moment the Hofstra transfer began his UMass career in 2011.

"He's a tough dude to guard,'' Putney said.

There is probably another reason to look at this year's streak as more solid and credible than the 2010 run.

"(Kellogg) has grown as a coach. He knows how to keep us going,'' Vinson said.

"A huge part of it, too, is that now we know what it's like to be familiar with success.''

The players who remember the 2010-11 streak are aware of the slim difference between victory and defeat. That could help the Minutemen do now what they could not then – use a seven-game winning streak as a catapult to even more success.

"We are finding our identity, and we've got our style,'' Putney said.

"We've been through this phase before, and we wound up 15-15. This time, we have to find a way to keep it going.''